Parve for the course: Looking back on 20 years of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival

“They grew up so fast,” says Helen Zukerman, reminiscing about the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, which celebrates its 20th birthday Thursday night. In honour of the mitzvah, festival founder Zukerman shared with Ben Kaplan her 20 favourite memories of the past two decades. It’s a Canadian success story, with a side of schmaltz.

20. “A young filmmaker calls our office to ask if it’s OK for him to share a room with his girlfriend. I tell him: ‘What happens at the Sutton Place Hotel stays at the Sutton Place Hotel.’ ” (2012)

19. “I was excited to introduce Stockholm Syndrome, but the audience was small and people walked out, which made me worried. The next day I was heading to introduce another film when an older couple approached me and asked if I introduced [the film]. I assumed they’re going to complain so I braced myself, but they proceeded to tell me how much they liked it. I was thrilled.” (2011)

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18. “We open with an Israeli film called A Matter of Size and bring in sumo wrestlers to explain sumo wrestling to our audience. We all enjoy their display and they said they enjoyed being with us — they’d never performed for a Jewish film festival before.” (2010)

17. “We screened American Swing, about Plato’s Retreat in New York in the ’70s. Overheard as two young men left the theatre: ‘I never thought I’d see that at a Jewish film festival.’ We handed them hand sanitizer and a coupon for a swinger’s club.” (2009)

16. “We were chosen by Sandra Schulberg for the world premiere of her film with footage that Budd Schulberg had taken at the Nuremberg trials. We created a ‘Legacy Award’ for her work.” (2009)

15. “Sharon, Lois and Bram did a live concert to celebrate their reunion video. People who grew up with their music, now parents, watched in awe with their kids.” (2008)

14. “Opening with an Israeli film about a girl being smuggled back to China to join her mother, we served Chinese noodles and everyone stood outside, dishing them out. The most famous ‘server’ was Evan Solomon by far.” (2008)

13. “We were premiering Chez Schwartz, about Schwartz’s deli, and flew in the famous meat-cutters so that we could serve sandwiches. We set them up at the entrance and as people went in, they were handed a half-sandwich. We had people paying for a ticket, but not going in to watch the film. They just wanted a sandwich.” (2007)

12. “We opened with Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. It’s on the blue side, so we printed one of her jokes as an example. We had a full house — and, of course, a number of complaints. ‘Did you read the joke in the catalogue?’ I asked.” (2006)

11. “TJFF has many devoted fans, but this one took the cake. He’d been involved in an accident with a streetcar and was hospitalized, but recovering. One day, we spotted him exiting the subway, pushing his IV pole, in a hospital gown. He ensconced himself toward the back of the theatre and spent most days there, leaving in the evening to take the subway back to his hospital bed.” (2005)

10. “We opened with Behind Enemy Lines and brought in three guests: a Jordanian journalist, an Israeli settler and the director. The journalist was stressed because he didn’t know how people would react, but he was happy with his reception. The director said that because we opened with the film, it became so in-demand that the Israeli settler, who was a police officer, was getting heat because he was asked to appear so often. Colleagues were complaining about him taking so much time off work.” (2004)

9. “In our 10th year, we screened Keep on Walking, about Joshua Nelson, a Black-Jewish gospel singer. After the film, Joshua gave a mini-concert. Three or four women got up and started to move to the music and before we knew it, most of the audience was up doing the hora around the Bloor Cinema.” (2002)

8. “I don’t mean to brag, Joshua may have gone on to play Oprah, but he got his start at TJFF.” (2002)

7. “The Grey Zone is one of the best Holocaust films ever made, but it isn’t our wish to send people home depressed, so after the movie we arranged for [TSO violinist] Jacques Israelievitch to play a Kaddish. Six-hundred people shuffled out of the theatre wordlessly.” (2002)

6. “I attend Judy Berlin with a non-Jewish friend who’s very quiet. My friend seems taken aback by the noise so I ask if he’s OK. He says that he’s fine, but his only hope is that the audience is quiet once the film starts, which they are … for the most part.” (2000)

5. “David A. Stein screens his world premiere of a short he made to honour his bubbie. She’s in the audience and gets up for a standing ovation. In 2005, after David passed away, we started the David A. Stein award for best documentary. It’s a $5,000 prize.” (1998)

4. “Oh yes, there is herring night at TJFF.” (1996)

3. “Two women meet up at a screening of a Holocaust film. They were in Auschwitz-Birkenau together and had not seen each other since then, maybe 60 years. They meet up in our lobby.” (1995)

2. “A film arrives from Poland in a wooden crate. Films usually have the soundtrack running alongside the edges, but this has the sound running down the middle of the print. Our projectionist Rob sits with the film for 49 minutes with his finger holding the tracking wheel. I tell the audience the story. At the end of the screening, Rob gets a standing ovation.” (1994)

1. “Opening night, we’re trying to be fiscally responsible and rent the Bloor for 9 p.m., but it has its own 7 p.m. screening. It’s supposed to end at 8:30, but two days before our opening, we find out it ends at 9:10. We’ve sold 800 tickets. The thought of all those angry people isn’t good. We get strawberries, hire a street musician and have a film student interview people in line (I still don’t know if he was recording). Everyone has so much fun that nobody notices what time it is.” (1994)

The Toronto Jewish Film Festival opens May 3. For more information on the lineup, including films on Woody Allen, Art Spiegelman and Philip Roth, visit tjff.com.